The Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of Slovakia (MIRRI) on June 30, 2026, submitted for interdepartmental approval a bill on the protection of minors in the digital space. This is already a concrete text with prescribed mechanisms, not a political promise — and if adopted, it will affect every family with children, including Ukrainian ones.
The most important thing for parents: access to so-called risky digital services is planned to be limited by an age limit of 15 years. The ban must be real, not just written on paper — the law provides for a technically feasible age verification, which is explained further.
What exactly will be regulated
In its official explanation, the ministry emphasizes one nuance: the state will not compile a list of “banned applications.” They will evaluate not the platform name but the type of risk that a particular service poses to a child. The rules may apply not only to Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok but also to certain online games and some services based on artificial intelligence.
A separate section of the bill is dedicated to video games — primarily mechanisms that provoke addiction or push children to repeated spending. The law will also regulate for the first time:
- the activities of child influencers;
- commercial use of minors’ personal data;
- strengthening parental control tools;
- responsibility of the platforms themselves for the safety of the child environment.
The text was worked on by a working group that included pediatricians, psychologists, lawyers, representatives of the Police Corps, ministries of education and labor, as well as representatives of digital platforms themselves. Minister Samuel Migaľ presented the project in Varhaňovce in the Prešov district with a caveat: the goal is not to ban children from technology but to establish rules appropriate to their age.
How age will be verified — and why this is the main issue
The checkbox “I am already 18” does not stop anyone, and sending social networks a photo of an ID card is a questionable idea from a privacy perspective. This dilemma is to be resolved by the European digital identity wallet EUDI, which will start working by the end of 2026.
The scheme is as follows: the wallet confirms only one fact — for example, that the user is already 15 years old. The platform does not learn the name, exact date of birth, or any other personal data. As TASR writes, this mechanism is supposed to make the age limit practically applicable, not just declarative. The European Union is preparing a similar system with anonymity preservation at the pan-European level.
The right to “digital forgetting”
Another innovation that Slovakia introduces for the first time: minors will be able to request the deletion of their digital footprint. This concerns photos, posts, and other data created in childhood when the person was not yet aware of the possible consequences of their publication in adult life. Submitting such a request should be as simple as possible.
What the law does not solve and what will happen next
Cyberbullying is not included in this bill — according to MIRRI, this topic requires a separate legislative solution.
There is also a competing initiative. The Hlas-SD party proposes a stricter version: an age limit of 16 years specifically for social networks. The government may consider this project already in August 2026, and it may come into force from January 2027. Which limit will win — 15 or 16 years — will become clear later: the bill still has to be reviewed by the government and parliament, so the final wording may change.
For now, nothing practical is required from parents. But keep in mind: if the law is adopted, social networks and gaming platforms will be obliged to actually block underage users, not just pretend. More details about the developments are in the bill review on Skript.
